(#3) The Blount Family Was Killed by a Briefcase Bomb on Thanksgiving Day
The Blount family of Lake Worth, TX, were returning from a Thanksgiving outing in 1985, when 15-year-old daughter Angela Blount found a briefcase on the porch of their mobile home. When opened, the briefcase exploded, killing Angela, her father Joe, and her cousin, Michael Columbus. Ten years later, a man named Michael Toney was convicted of the crime, but his conviction was overturned because the prosecution withheld evidence that contradicted witness testimony and exonerated Toney.
Some have speculated that the Blounts weren't the intended targets of the mystery bomber, and that the device was intended for one of their neighbors instead. Nonetheless, no further evidence has been produced in the case, and the entire affair remains a total mystery.
(#8) Shots Through a Curtained Window Killed Two People During Thanksgiving Dinner
Shortly after 10 pm on Thanksgiving night, 2002, an unknown assailant fired shots through the curtained windows of Joseph and Evangeline Britt's home in Tacoma, WA. The Britts had been hosting a large Thanksgiving dinner gathering, with about 25 people attending. When the shooting stopped, two of those people - 19-year-old Kimberly Riley and 5-year-old Jermey Britt-Bayinthavong - were dead. Two other attendees were wounded but survived their injuries.
Witnesses saw a man with dark hair fleeing the scene in a pick-up truck, but he was never identified, and his motive for firing into a house full of Thanksgiving revelers remains a mystery, as well.
(#1) Hijacker D.B. Cooper Disappeared in the Sky on Thanksgiving Eve
The only unsolved case of hijacking and air piracy in US history happened the night before Thanksgiving in 1971. A guy calling himself Dan Cooper (later called "D.B." by the media for unknown reasons, but the name stuck) boarded Northwest Airlines Flight #305 in Portland bound for Seattle. Mid-flight, he revealed to the flight attendant that he had a bomb in his carry-on bag (he showed it to her), and promptly conducted the politest hijacking ever.
He got the plane to land in Seattle and demanded $200,000 in cash and two sets of parachutes. After these demands were met by the airline and the FBI, Cooper released the passengers and instructed the flight crew to take off and head for Mexico City. Shortly after this flight began, Cooper sent the flight attendant to the cockpit for safety, strapped on one of the parachute sets, opened the plane's rear stairs, and jumped out into legend.
No trace of Cooper was ever found. Some of the money he stole was recovered from a forest outside of Portland many years later, but the man himself, and his true identity, remain a mystery to this day. Cooper became a legend and folk hero because of his boldness and polite demeanor, and the FBI gave up looking for him altogether, closing its case on Cooper in 2009 without ever having solved it.
(#5) Teenager Karen Mitchell Vanished Without a Trace on Thanksgiving
Karen Marie Mitchell disappeared from Eureka, CA, on Thanksgiving Day, 1997. She was off school for the holiday, and she had just left her place of employment and stopped by a shoe store owned by her aunt and legal guardian, Annie Casper. Karen visited briefly with Casper, then headed home to prepare for the holiday festivities. But she never made it there.
A witness claims he saw Karen get into a blue sedan driven by an older white man shortly after leaving the mall where her aunt worked. This man has never been identified, though two high-profile suspects were examined in connection with the case. The first was convicted murderer Wayne Adam Ford, who fit the witness's description of Karen's kidnapper, but though he confessed to several murders, Ford denied any involvement in Karen's case. Police were never able to tie him to the crime.
The second suspect was Robert Durst, subject of the recent HBO documentary The Jinx. Durst appears to have visited Casper's store several times, and was in Eureka the day that Karen disappeared. But like Ford, police have been unable to definitively link Durst to the crime.
Karen's fate remains unknown.
(#7) Young Beth Lynn Barr Disappeared on Her Thanksgiving Walk Home
On Thanksgiving Day, 1977, six-year-old Beth Lynn Barr was walking home from school in Wilkinsberg, PA, to spend the holiday with her family - but she never arrived. Because Beth's father was a local cop, the police leapt immediately into action when Beth didn't come home. But it was all to no avail. Beth was never found.
A witness later reported seeing Beth being carried to a blue sedan driven by an older white man, and the car was traced to a local rental agency. But the agency's records showed that the car had not been loaned out that day; it was possible that the perpetrator had stolen the car for use in his crime, and returned it to the agency before anyone noticed it was gone.
Sadly, Beth's skeletal remains were discovered in a shallow, unmarked grave near Monroeville, PA, two years later. She had been stabbed several times in the chest.
Her killer remains at large, identity unknown.
(#10) There's an Unsolved, Century-Old Thanksgiving Murder in New York
One of the oldest unsolved Thanksgiving murders occurred almost a century ago in Schenectady County, NY.
John H. Woodruff, a game protector for the county, left his home on Thanksgiving Day, 1919, to patrol the area, and never returned. His body was found almost two years later, in April 1921, buried in a shallow grave near a creek bed.
The top half of Woodruff's skull had been detached, indicating that he had been killed by a blow from a large object, possibly an axe. Woodruff's wife claimed he had received, then destroyed, a threatening letter a few months before his disappearance, and a witness reported seeing Woodruff arguing with another man on the day in question. Woodruff and the man then walked off together into the woods. It was the last time anyone saw Woodruff alive.
No suspect or motive was ever identified in Woodruff's case. After almost 100 years, his murder has remained unsolved.
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Thanksgiving is a happy holiday when families gather to enjoy a turkey meal, but in some cases, the holiday is scary. Thanksgiving sometimes marks the beginning of the most dangerous time of the year. The fact is that the crime rate has soared during the holiday. When people are sharing a hearty meal and grateful for their lives, some murders and disappearances are still mysterious.
The random tool tells 10 unsolved crimes in history that happened on Thanksgiving day, they are cruel true stories. Welcome to share these stories with others and search for other hot topics on this tool.
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